Intelligence of Orcs

[Reyna Evergreen]

In a movie I saw, probably Star Wars or the like, one of the character states:

The ability to speak does not make you intelligent

Is it safe to say that a cunning orc is not necessarily an intelligent one? Acting for one's own advantage may seem cunning, but in the long run, it may not be the most intelligent thing to do. The orcs who wanted to eat Merry and Pippin were idiots, enough said, although the one who decided to capture them for himself- and pardon my memory and lack of names- was considered cunning and perhaps intelligent. Wasn't he killed in the end, anyway?

It's true that there is some speck of brains among the orcs, but not enough to actually plan something deft and subtle. Their act is more chop, hack, kill and eat. There might be the oddball, or a mutation, every few generations who would be able to push himself to better things, but he's always the exception.

Orcs are brainless, tools for the greater mind's schemes.

Or I could just be totally missing the point here.